vivisection

Vivisection (from Latin: vivus — “alive,” and sectio — “cutting”) is defined as surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The term is sometimes more broadly defined as any experimentation on live animals (see animal testing.)^[1][2][3] The term is often used by organizations opposed to animal experimentation^[4] but is rarely used by practicing scientists.^[2][5] Human vivisection has been perpetrated as a form of torture.

Animal vivisection

The examples and perspective in this section deal primarily with English-speaking territories and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (October 2011)

Prior to vivisection for educational purposes, chloroform was administered as an anesthetic to this common sand frog.

Research requiring vivisection techniques that cannot be met through other means are often subject to an external ethics review in conception and implementation, and in many jurisdictions, use of anesthesia is legally mandated for any surgery likely to cause pain to any vertebrate.^[6]

In the U.S., the Animal Welfare Act explicitly requires that any procedure that may cause pain utilize “tranquilizers, analgesics, and anesthetics,”^[7] with exceptions when “scientifically necessary.”^[8] The act does not define “scientific necessity” or regulate specific scientific procedures;^[9] instead, approval or rejection of individual techniques in each federally-funded lab is determined on a case-by-case basis by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, which contains at least one veterinarian, one scientist, one non-scientist, and one individual from outside the university.^[10]

In the U.K., any experiment involving vivisection must be granted a licence by the Home Secretary. The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 “expressly directs that, in determining whether to grant a licence for an experimental project, ‘the Secretary of State shall weigh the likely adverse effects on the animals concerned against the benefit likely to accrue.’” The Code of Practice in Australia “requires that all experiments must be approved by an Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee” that includes a “person with an interest in animal welfare who is not employed by the institution conducting the experiment, and an additional independent person not involved in animal experimentation.”^[11]

Anti-vivisectionists have played roles in the emergence of the animal welfare and animal rights movements. Among their arguments is that it is immoral to inflict pain or injury to another living creature, for whatever purpose.^[4]

Human vivisection

Unit 731, a biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army, undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). Prisoners of war were subjected to various forms of vivisection, in many cases without anesthesia.^[12][13]

Nazi human experimentation involved medical experiments on live subjects, such as vivisections by Josef Mengele,^[14] usually without anesthesia.^[15]

See also

• Pro-Test
• Speaking of Research
• American Anti-Vivisection Society
• Animal testing regulations
• Critical animal studies
• Dissection
• History of animal testing
• Human subject research
• Intrinsic value (animal ethics)
• Bionics

Notes

Further reading

• Pro-Test advocacy website [1]
• Speaking of Research website [2]
• "Paixao, RL; Schramm, FR. Ethics and animal experimentation: what is debated? Cad. Saúde Pública, Rio de Janeiro, 2007"
• Yarri, Donna. The Ethics of Animal Experimentation, Oxford University Press U.S., 2005

v d e Animal testing Main articles Animal testing · Alternatives to animal testing · Animal testing on invertebrates · Animal testing on frogs · Animal testing on non-human primates · Animal testing on rabbits · Animal testing on rodents · Animal testing regulations · History of animal testing · History of model organisms · Laboratory animal sources · Toxicology testing Issues Animal rights · Animal welfare · Pain and suffering in laboratory animals · Biomedical research · Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 · Great Ape research ban · International trade in primates Controversial experiments Brown Dog affair · Britches · Cambridge University primates · Pit of despair · Silver Spring monkeys · Unnecessary Fuss Companies Charles River Laboratories, Inc. · Covance · Harlan · Huntingdon Life Sciences · Laboratory animal suppliers in the United Kingdom · Nafovanny · Shamrock Farm Groups/campaigns Americans for Medical Progress · American Association for Laboratory Animal Science · American Association for the Advancement of Science · Boyd Group · British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection · Dr Hadwen Trust · Foundation For Biomedical Research · National Anti-Vivisection Society · People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) · ALF · Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine · Primate Freedom Project · Pro-Test · SPEAK · Research Defence Society · SHAC · Stop Sequani Animal Testing Writers/activists Colin Blakemore · Carl Cohen · Gill Langley · Ingrid Newkirk · Neal Barnard · Jerry Vlasak · Simon Festing · Tipu Aziz Categories Animal testing · Animal rights